[cntainer]

500 - the number of employees before your CEO becomes a political figure

1000 - the size of company when you’re at risk of losing accountability

From my own experience and other sources (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35206141) those numbers seem too high. I've seen this happen 2 times in front of my eyes while both companies were in the 100-200 range.

One of them managed to go to the next level and adapt to the new reality the other is still struggling.

[tolstoshev]

Yep, Dunbar's number is what you are looking at for this phase change: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number

So around the 150-200 mark.

[BerislavLopac]

I remember reading a CEO's categorisation of companies: he said, when I do to the office restroom, and another guy is at the urinal next to me, there are three different results based on the size of the company:

  1. I know who he is, and he knows who I am.
  2. I don't know who he is, but he knows me.
  3. Neither of us has any idea who the other one is.